Bacon container

ABSTRACT

An open face container of bacon consisting of a tray formed of thin, non-toxic metal having a generally flat central part which is ridged to provide substantial rigidity and which is surrounded by a peripheral bead, and a layer of bacon slices on the tray within the bead, the bacon being raw or partially or fully cooked. The tray is used as the pan on which the cooking of the raw or partially cooked bacon is completed or the fully cooked bacon is warmed, and is disposable after use.

United States Patent 1 .Feely 1 Feb. 6, 1973 22 Filed:

' 21 Appl. No.: 30,183

[ 1 BACON CONTAINER [75] Inventor: Robert L. Feely, Emmaus, Pa.

[73] Assignee: Arbogast & Bastian, Inc., Allentown, Pa.

April 20, 1970 Related US. Application Data [63] Continuation-impart of Ser. Nos. 846,470, July 31, 1969, abandoned, and Sen No. 846,504, July 31,

1969, abandoned.

[52] US. Cl ..99/174, 99/171 H, 99/171-TC, 206/65 K, 206/72, 220/74, 220/97 B, 229/3.5

[51] Int. Cl. ..B65b 25/06 [58] Field of Search ..99/171 R, 171 H, 174, 444, 99/446, l71 TE; 206/65 1 72; 229/25, 3;.5 MF; 220/74, 97 B [56] 7 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,673,003 3/1954 Stewart ..99/171 H UX 3,424,596 l/1969 Sullian, ..99/l'74 3,446,632 5/1969 Le Van ...99/17l H X 2,807,550 9/1957 Zarotschenzeff et al. ......99/171 H X 2,625,242

Reed ..22 9/2.5 X

3,567,067 3/1971 Weiss .....'...229 2.5 x 3,361,576 l/1968 Jacobson ..99/174x 3,597,238 8/1971 Scharre ..99/171 11 x OTHER PUBLICATIONS Food Engineering, Sept. 1957 pp. 80-83 Gaging the Boom in Rigid-Foil Packaging by Ziemba Modern Packaging, March 1956, pp 190-191 Sticks that Dont Stick Modern Packaging, June 1957, p. 121 Heat and Eat Sausages Primary ExaminerFrank W. Lutter Assistant Examiner-Steven L. Weinstein Att0meyScrivener, Parker, Scrivener and Clarke 57 ABSTRACT An open face container of bacon consisting of a tray formed of thin, non-toxic metal having a generally flat central part which is ridged to provide substantial rigidity and which is surrounded by a peripheral bead, and a layer of bacon slices on the tray within the bead, the bacon being raw or partially or fully cooked. The tray is used as the pan on which the cooking of the raw or partially cooked bacon is completed or the fully cooked bacon is warmed, and is disposable after use.

1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTEDFEB 61975 3,715,218

INVENTOR ROBERT L. FEELY ATTORNEYS BACON CONTAINER RELATION TO OTHER CASES This application is a continuation-in-part of my copending applications Ser. No. 846,470, filed July 31, I969, for Raw Bacon Container, and Ser. No. 846,504, filed July 31, 1969, for Partially Cooked Bacon Container, now both abandoned.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a plan view of a bacon container according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken on line 2-2 of FIG. I, and

FIG. 3 is an enlarged side elevational view of a package of bacon containers, each made according to the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION By the present invention I have provided a new and useful article of manufacture consisting of a container and a plurality of bacon slices, which is constructed, adapted and intended to be prepared by the meat packer for individual sale or to be packed in packages containing a number of containers, each with its bacon slices. Each such article of manufacture comprises an open face assembly ofa flat tray and a number of bacon slices arranged on it which, in accordance with the invention, may be raw, or partially cooked, or fully cooked. The tray which forms part of the product is used as the pan on which the cooking of the raw or partially cooked bacon is completed, or the fully cooked bacon is heated for consumption, after which the tray may be discarded. The product is prepared by the meat packer for retail sale for home use or for sale to institutional users such as restaurants and the like.

The tray forming part of the product provided by the invention is generally flat, substantially rigid, and is formed of a material which will withstand the temperature required to cook the raw or partially cooked bacon slices, which material is non-toxic both cold and hot, and which is inexpensive with respect to both cost of material and cost of fabrication. I have found that sheet aluminum or tinplate of 0.0045 inch gauge meets all of these requirements, although other materials may be used.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is disclosed in the drawings forming part of this specification and comprises a generally flat tray having a flat central part 2 which is surrounded by an upwardly convex, downwardly concave peripheral bead 4 the uppermost part of which is elevated above the upper surface of the flat central part of the tray a distance which is approximately equal to the thickness of a normal bacon slice and which is more definitely defined hereinafter. The bead 4 terminates in an outer edge 6 which preferably lies approximately in the plane of the lower surface of the flat central part of the tray, as this relation of the parts facilitates packaging a number of trays containing bacon, as shown in FIG. 3. The bead may be formed by pressing a flat sheet, thus also forming the flat central part of the tray, and the surrounding bead adds rigidity to the tray, thus permitting the use of thin and relatively inexpensive sheet material such as thin gauge aluminum or tinplate.

In order to add additional rigidity to the tray the generally flat central part 2 thereof is provided with scores or ridges 8 which extend transversely or diagonally of the tray, as shown in the drawings. These scores or ridges may be formed by pressing at the same time that the surrounding bead 4 is formed.

The product provided by the invention is completed by adding to the tray a plurality of slices of bacon which are shown at 10 in the drawings. These are preferably arranged in a single layer of slices laid parallel to each other in side-by-side relation as particularly shown in FIG. 1. It will be understood that within the scope of the invention more than one layer of bacon slices may be put on the tray and the slices in each layer may be arranged in other ways than parallel and side-by-side.

The term raw as used in this specification and claims will be understood to mean completely uncooked after curing. The term partially cooked" is defined by agencies of the United States Government to mean that less than 60 percent of the fat content has been removed by cooking, and the term has this meaning in this specification and claims. The same agencies define fully cooked to mean that in cooking it the bacon must reach an internal temperature of at least lF for 1% minutes, and the term has this meaning in this specification and claims.

In further accordance with the invention the bacon slices are positioned entirely on the central part 2 of the tray within but not encroaching on the surrounding bead 4, and this bead is made of sufficient height that it will contain the liquid fat which is produced by completion of cooking the raw or partially cooked bacon for consumption. Thus, the housewife or other user of the product need only place on a stove burner, a grill, in an oven or under a broiler the open face product consisting of the tray and the raw, partially cooked or fully cooked bacon as provided by the invention and heat sufficiently for human consumption. The tray itself forms the pan on which the cooking of the slices is completed, and the surrounding bead 4 holds within the confines of the tray the liquid fat produced by the final cooking. When the bacon slices are cooked and removed the tray may be discarded.

The open-face container consisting of tray and bacon slices may be sold by the meat packer in any desired way. In a preferred form, any number of tray and bacon products may be stacked and enclosed in an enveloping packaging material such as heat-sealable polyethylene. Such a package is disclosed in FIG. 3 and comprises a plurality of stacked tray and bacon slice products enclosed in packaging material 12, adjacent trays being separated by sheets 14, preferably formed of cellophane, which prevent fat or grease from the bacon strips being absorbed into, or adhered to, the material of the adjacent tray.

It will be understood that all sizes of trays, each with any numbers of bacon slices thereon, are encompassed within the invention.

I claim:

l. A new article of manufacture to be sold as part of an assembly of similar units and used as a unit in cooking bacon slices, comprising a disposable substantially rigid shallow uncovered tray which is non-toxic both hot and cold and which will withstand any temperature necessary to cook bacon slices for human consumption, the tray having:

a. a generally flat central part having ridges constructed and arranged to provide additional rigidity to the tray,

. the tray being formed of metal of approximately .0045 inch gauge,

. an upwardly convex downwardly concave bead heating bacon slices substantially covering the flat" central part,

. the bead terminating at its outer periphery in an outer edge lying approximately in the plane of the lower surface of the flat central part,

. and at least one layer consisting of a plurality of slices of bacon arranged in side-by-side relation on and substantially covering the flat central part of the tray. 

